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On Tuesday, January 24th 2012 NFL Football Players and NFL Cheerleaders will be holding Youth Clinics for Hawai‘i Island intermediate and high school students at Kealakehe High School from 3:00–5:30 PM and Wednesday, January 25th 2012, at Kea‘au High School from 3:00–5:30 PM. Players and cheerleaders will also visit a local school for an assembly before the clinics. The NFL Pro Bowl Youth Clinics, now in its 10th year, is focused on motivating our youth to realize their dreams and to maximize their potential.

If you are an existing or new beekeeper, and are interested in learning how to raise hygienic hives that will be able to better defend against the pests that are currently decimating bee populations throughout the State of Hawaii, then please plan to attend the BIBA Hygienic Queen Selection class, taught by master bee keeper Jeff Ritchie of Winding Road Apiaries of North Carolina.

A couple of beekeepers remove a hive from my shack in the back of my house

This hands-on class will be held in the Pahoa area of the Big Island, beginning on Wednesday 2/8/12 and extending thru Thursday 2/19/12.

Due to the duration of this course, it may not be possible for all students to attend all days. Days 1 thru 3 should be considered mandatory for all students. Days 4 thru 12 are recommended for existing beekeeper/yard owners, but all enrolled students are welcome. Days 4 thru 12 will be videotaped, so that any students who are unable to attend all class sessions, can still obtain the desired training online.

The cost for this intensive hands-on training is only $75/person, with a 15 person maximum class size. If you are interested, please don’t delay in making your reservation, as this is a one-time opportunity, and once all seats are filled, additional students will not be accepted. Please contact Val Kimbrough at 769-1320 for further information, or to reserve your spot today.

“Going green,” with an eye toward self-sufficiency, is a goal shared by an increasing number of Big Island residents. Our island now produces only 10-15 % of the food we eat, which means we must rely on vulnerable transportation systems, with the ever-present threat of being only a few days away from empty grocery store shelves. But there is more—much more—to cultivation than mere food production … there is also beauty, savoring, human history and culture, and healing.

Beginning in February 2012, the Lyman Museum will offer a unique exploration of the Big Island’s agricultural potential through a five-part series of educational excursions.

Using the image of “The Garden,” these excursions will take us to a number of research and producing farms. We’ll learn about water, land, and power resources; hear specialists in food production, transportation, and marketing; hear pros and cons of genetically modified food production; consider the cultural aspects of food that shape our diets; and enjoy the sensory experiences our gardens provide.

Join us for one or more of these exceptional learning experiences:

Saturday, February 4: The Garden as Provider I

Saturday, March 17: The Garden as Provider II

Saturday, April 14: The Garden as Teacher

Saturday, May 19: The Garden as Healer

Saturday, June 16: The Garden as Paradise

Kaika, a farmer at Dragon's Eye Farm in Kapoho

Among other activities, we’ll visit an apiary, a coffee and tea plantation, an experimental farm, hydroponic gardens, a self-sufficient home, a Zen garden, an exotic products garden, a bonsai garden, and a palm garden. We’ll learn from experts about the “locavore” movement, about ethnogastronomy, and about perception of taste and scent.

Dr. Judith Kirkendall and Leslie Lang will lead the excursions. Kirkendall is an anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of food. Lang, author of Exploring Historic Hilo and co-author of Mauna Kea, has a master’s degree in cultural anthropology with a focus on Hawai`i and the Pacific region.

Each excursion will begin at 8:30AM and end at about 3:00PM, with chauffeured transportation, free entry to featured activities, and product sampling opportunities. Lunch will be provided, and all tickets include same-day admission to the Lyman Museum upon return. Cost is $75 per excursion ($65 for Lyman Museum members). To register, please call the Museum at 935-5021.

As part of the 808 HALT coalition campaign to promote awareness about human trafficking in Hawaii, this video takes a closer look at cases involving immigrant farm workers from Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

Hawaiian Paradise Park resident Greggor Ilagan declared his candidacy for the new District 4 seat representing Puna Makai on the Hawaii County Council to a group of supporters Friday.

Greggor Ilagan

Ilagan said, “Puna is comprised of unique individuals and the government has been in the business of putting people in neat little boxes with one size fits all laws. Many of these laws only stifle innovation and personal freedom with minimal public benefit. That has to stop!“

The 25-year-old is a 2004 graduate of Waiakea High School, served six years in the Air National Guard, and is presently an accounting major at Hawaii Community College.

The Governor of American Samoa Togiola Tulafono has headed to Hawaii to meet the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs Anthony Babauta and Director of the Office of Insular Affairs Nikolao Pula.

Governor of American Samoa - Togiola Tulafono

Governor Togiola will also travel to the Big Island for a meeting regarding Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and geothermal power development in Hilo.

While in Hilo, the Governor and First Lady Mary Ann Tulafono will also meet American Samoa students attending the University of Hawaii Hilo campus.

Governor Togiola will also travel to Kauai for a tour of the Breadfruit Institute, a laboratory under the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Lihue, which began exporting tens of thousands of breadfruit treelings last year to provide a sustainable food source.

Today is Martin Luther King Day and many people reflect upon this day in many different ways. Back in the late 1960’s it was very uncommon for a black man and a white woman to become involved in a relationship and it was even more unheard of for a black man and a white woman to get married and have kids.

Martin Luther King inspired many folks to break barriers that probably wouldn’t have been done and my white mom and my black father did just that and in 1969 fell in love and I was a product of their relationship and eventual marriage.

While their love for each other began to fall apart in the early 1970’s and divorce became eminent… both of their love for me as their child lead to a long and lengthy custody battle.

At one point during this custody battle… they were going to give possession of me to my father since I was half black… and the courts at the time felt that I would be brought up better in a “Black Society” then a “White Society”.

In the long run… the courts came to their senses and decided that a multi-racial child should not necessarily go to the parent of any given race… the child should go to the best fit parent and my mom gained custody of me.

Here is the final page of the appellate courts decision on my case… as you can see… race was definitely a factor in me growing up all of my life from the time I was born.

My father would eventually would meet another woman (also white) and I have two half brothers from that relationship that only until recently… I had lost contact with.

It’s actually pretty funny here in Hawaii being half black and half white as everyone just thinks I’m a “local”… until I open my mouth and don’t speak much local pidgin.